


Peace, Before the Flood

by TheBeastofBurton



Category: Love & Legends (Visual Novel)
Genre: Episode 4.12, F/F, after the fun stuff, because i wanted more fun stuff, i did a hard swan dive into this fandom, set the night before they go back, so look out below folks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-28
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2020-05-28 12:07:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19393801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBeastofBurton/pseuds/TheBeastofBurton
Summary: Helena felt almost a voyeur, staring through a window at a life she could never hope to deserve.





	Peace, Before the Flood

Helena came awake to the quick, short scratchings of graphite against paper. It was unfamiliar enough to pull her to full alertness even as her body ached to stay in the still warmth of sleep. Within a moment she had reoriented to her surroundings; she was in an apartment in Chicago, an unfathomably large city in a long domain bounded by rivers and arbitrary lines. Andy’s apartment. Andy’s world.

The television was on, just the light of its flickering images and the low hum of electricity seeding static on its screen. It cast shadows across the darkened room, away from the dull orange glow of the city clinging to the thin curtains drawn over the far windows. She could see Andy sitting at the kitchen table, her dimmed computer off to one side, glancing between it and some ledger she seemed to be making notes in.

Helena rose quietly, easing herself to sitting as the soft sheet covering her bare skin drifted down into her lap. The air was still warm enough to be comfortable, the floor barely cool as she pressed her feet down into it to stand. Andy was faced away from her, and as she approached she heard her humming softly under her breath as she worked. She had wrapped a threadbare dressing robe around herself, large enough that she’d had to roll the wide sleeves up to free her hands, loose enough that it gapped lazily about her chest. She had taken the pencil off the page for the moment, spinning it between her fingers dexterously, absently. The back of her dark hair was still mussed from sleep, and the activity before it.

Helena felt almost a voyeur, staring through a window at a life she could never hope to deserve.

The thought caused her breath to catch before she could think to control it, and the sound caused Andy to stiffen sharply and turn towards her.

“Oh geez, honey. You scared the pants off me,” she said in a half-whisper, half-wheeze, sinking back against her chair. “I woke you up, didn’t I. I’m really sorry.”

“Do not apologize, I woke myself,” Helena replied, trying to hide her weakness behind a slight smirk and a pointed look at the clothing littered across the floor. “And I believe I took care of your pants some time ago.”

Andy snorted, rolling her eyes as she stood herself. She stretched her arms out over her head and leaned back slightly, popping the stiffness out of the joints. Helena did not stop herself from staring at each inch of skin the old robe revealed to the air with the motion.

“Don’t think I didn’t see that feint there, but I’m gonna go get you a blanket or something.” She held up a hand to stop Helena’s protest even as she opened her mouth. “I don’t want you to be cold, okay? Even if it’s only for a few more minutes while I finish this up.” She was gone around the corner in an instant, hand brushing affectionately against Helena’s arm as she passed. By the time she returned with a blanket filled with the soft, cloying smell of a well-used life left half-forgotten, Helena was so full of love as to be mute with it.

Andy reached up to drape the fabric over Helena's shoulders, tugging slightly as it settled and leaning up on her toes to press their lips together. The contact was soft, unhurried, knowing. Devoid of expectations. A gentle outlet to give Helena the space to breathe.

"Want me to tuck you in again? I promise I won't be more than a few minutes."

"I would rather sit with you," Helena replied without thinking, glancing away in a half-hearted attempt to mask her shame. She knew she was allowed this weakness now but to acknowledge it in words, to bare it to the world made her skin prickle. Even months spent drinking from the very fount of kindness itself could not wash the expectation of what should come.

But all Andy did was smile. Reach to brush a lock of hair behind Helena's ear. Let her hand linger against Helena's cheek as if she could not bear to pull away just yet.

"Alright," she sighed, sounding so young and tired and quietly pleased all the same. "Why don't you go pull up a chair and I'll get you a glass of water, yeah?" Helena managed to only stare after her like a lovesick fool for a moment before she complied.

At the table she was quickly distracted by the information burned behind the pane of glass. It was a complex combination of words, numbers, and colored groupings of shapes portioned next to one another. She cocked her head slightly to examine more closely, distracted by the seemingly cheerful greeting at the top of the display.

"Who is Andrea?" she asked as Andy returned, placing a squat glass cup in front of Helena and taking the chair beside her. She frowned, curious as she followed Helena's line of sight.

"Oh!" She chuckled, tipping back the top half of the machine so the information was more clearly visible. "That’s me. Andy is short for Andrea. Andrea Eileen McClellan." Bracing an elbow against the table, she leaned her head against her hand and smiled ruefully. "I never really felt like an Andrea, you know?"

Names held power, true names doubly so. Even the smallest child knew this truth and guarded the knowledge thusly, and Andy gave over the invocation to Helena without a second’s hesitation. Her trust was absolute, its depth and beauty beyond the scope of words.

“That is because you are clearly an Andy,” Helena managed to reply, mimicking the strange cadence as best she could to show how truly she understood the gift she had just been given. Delight flickered over Andy’s face, as it always did when Helena showed her something new. She reached out her free hand and wrapped it around one of Helena’s, drawing it to her lips to press a kiss into the knuckles.

“Five minutes, I promise. Then we can get back to sleeping.”

“What is it that you are working on?” Helena asked, curiosity getting the best of her as Andy’s attention returned to the display on the computer.

“Just moving some money around, making sure all my bills are covered for a while.” She alternated between tapping a slightly recessed panel on the lower half of the computer and skating the pads of her fingers over it, causing the display on the machine’s upper half to change half a dozen times as she spoke. “That way if we decide to stay, we won’t have to worry about creditors banging down the door, and,” she paused, frowning faintly at the latest display before glancing back at her ledger.

“Sorry; math is not my strong suit. But, I was saying, and if we decide to go, we’ll still have some options if we ever get the chance to come back.” Each option was presented easily and plainly, as though she truly did not prefer one to the other. Silence fell between them as her focus narrowed on the task at hand, and Helena passed the time by sipping slowly at the cool, clean water in her cup.

True to her word, within a handful of moments Andy concluded her work, nodding firmly at the computer before folding it closed with a soft click. She yawned as she closed her ledger, piling it on top of the slim machine and turning her gaze back upon Helena. The light stole away most of the color in her flint-grey eyes, and still they radiated warmth and life in a way that stole Helena’s breath with the slightest glance.

"May I take you back to bed?" Helena whispered. Andy grinned as Helena lead her to standing.

“Any day of the week.”

The television darkened with the press of a button as they passed. Andy paused at the edge of the bed, drawing Helena’s hands to the loosely knotted cloth belt holding her robe closed. “Think I’m overdressed for the occasion?” she asked teasingly.

“Quite,” Helena murmured in reply. The knot unwound with the barest pressure, the garment itself sliding eagerly from the warm skin of her shoulders when Helena’s hands passed across them, leaving Andy bare and unafraid. She watched intently as Helena shed the blanket spread over her own shoulders.

“I’ve never had anyone want to stay up with me when I couldn’t sleep,” she admitted as Helena crawled into her space beside the wall, following soon after. Her own slight frame lain down in thoughtless defense, her body between Helena and the rest of the world.

“I would rather pass the time at your side than take rest while you endure such strife alone.”

Andy seemed to shudder slightly, her cheeks reddening and eyes quickly averting from Helena’s. “God, I don’t think I’ll ever get over how you talk,” she mumbled. “You could make me swoon by reading the damn phone book.”

“I shall assume that is a positive thing,” Helena replied, chasing the flush down Andy’s neck with the tips of her fingers. “But why does sleep elude you to begin with, my love?”

Even as she opened her body to Helena’s touch, Andy sighed and frowned slightly. “Just change, I guess. I’ve never been great with it. Something big’s gonna happen one way or the other, you know?” As if preempting the thought that rose up in Helena, she shifted just enough to meet her eyes with a very serious expression. “And I’m with you whichever way you want to go, you know that.” She was ferocious in her will to protect Helena’s right to choose their path, even here where it needed no defending.

When Helena nodded her acknowledgment as much as the pillow would allow, Andy relaxed enough to continue. She smiled, almost sheepish.

"Is it bad that I'm kind of scared of both options? If we go back it's right back into the fight, and who knows what's been happening while we've been gone. But if we stay," she trailed off, embarrassment darkening to a distant, haunted look that Helena knew deeply as self-loathing.

"It won't take you much longer to see that I'm just some directionless loser drowning in student loan debt. You're brilliant and brave and so, so strong; you could be anything you want here, and I'll just weigh you down." Helena's chest ached with all she was feeling, the sorrow, the disbelief, the confusion.

"I have known you no longer than two turns of the seasons and can hardly measure the times I have been sustained by your strength alone." Helena shifted closer, resting her hand against the curve of Andy neck, thumb pressed to the line of her jaw.

"And even if that were not so, I would love you all the same. You are so much greater than the sum of any failings you might perceive. Every day you allow me at your side, I shall work to show that to you."

Andy simply stared at her for a moment, eyes glassed with the beginning of tears. "What if I want you to stay forever?" She whispered the words in a shaking voice, as if it was her most fragile desire. As if the same one had not consumed Helena's own thoughts for months.

"Then I am yours unending."

It was not the first time Helena had said those words. The last time she had been on her knees, beaten and afraid, shaking under the weight of a promise she knew she would never be enough to fulfill. But when Andy lurched forward and kissed her, in that moment of warmth and darkness and unshakable safety, Helena felt as though nothing from that life could ever touch her again.

“How are you real?” Andy breathed against her mouth. Helena shifted, pulling Andy’s body beneath her own, grounded by the strength of the arms that curled around her back, by the touch that would never stray beyond what she could bear.

“I have often thought the same of you, beloved.” She lowered her head to the curve of Andy’s neck, breathing deeply. "That one so kind, so cunning, so breathtaking, could wish to be by my side? I could live a thousand lives free of sin and still be beyond deserving of such a gift."

Andy made an abrupt sound of protest, but Helena only managed to wrench back an inch before she felt the warm pressure of hands threaded through her hair.

"None of that," Andy said, voice still rough with pleasure. She smoothed her thumbs along the base of Helena's skull and held eye contact, mouth set in a firm line. "You deserve every good thing in this world, and your world, and however many others are out there, but this? You and me? It's not about deserving."

Her eyes were sharp and bright as she tilted her head up and brushed her lips against Helena's in the barest, most intimate contact Helena had ever experienced.

"This works because we work. We love each other and work every day to be better at it. We're partners, alright? In like a good build each other up way, not in a Thelma and Louise way where we have to drive off a cliff at the end."

"I do not know what that means," Helena said, enchanted all the same. Andy huffed softly, glancing away as she colored slightly. “Great job, McClellan; you nearly managed to be smooth,” she muttered to herself, and Helena only managed to suppress a laugh by leaning down and pressing her lips to Andy’s warm cheek. “But you got the first part, right?”

“I did.” She relished the shiver she felt travel up Andy’s body as her breath whispered over her ear. Her heart still stumbled around the truth of it, but her mind understood. “We are equals. My triumphs are yours, as your struggles are mine. As you are mine.”

“God, yes,” Andy hissed in pleasure when Helena grazed her teeth against the skin of her neck, barely resisting the urge to bite down into the softness. “All yours. Only yours.” Helena felt as though she would never overcome her awe at this, how easy it was to slip from love to lust and back again, as simple as drawing breath. Andy’s body came to life beneath her hands, rising to meet her every touch. Every hitch of breath, every whimper and groan resonated in Helena’s own chest.

“I have asked much of you this night,” she admitted even as she slid down, dragging her mouth greedily over Andy’s skin. “Can you bear to have me take you once more?”

“Sweetheart, you wildly underestimate how much I want you all the time,” replied in a groan of a laugh, grinning weakly when Helena looked up to meet her gaze. “You could have me like this every night and I’d still ask for it twice on Sundays.” Helena laughed at the curious turn of phrase, inhaling sharply when she felt the truth of it in the eager jerk of Andy's hips. She let her fingertips linger along the gentle plane of Andy's stomach, nearly losing all sense when they met the sharp angle of her hip bones. By the time they skated over the thatch of hair at her center, gathering the warm, slick evidence of her pleasure, Helena all but growled in satisfaction.

There was a power inherent in touching a woman, in the hot, soft skin giving sweetly under her hand, swollen and so, so wet from all she had asked for before that moment. That it was Andy's body parting for her, Andy's voice sighing out not just in the pleasure of the motion, but the rightness of it, nearly brought Helena to the point of bliss by sound alone.

"You are mine," she rasped into Andy ear as she began to move, sinking into and retreating from the fluttering warmth that clutched around her fingers. "Your heart, your body," she thrust forward with each claim, curling into the soft space inside of her that she knew would bring the deepest pleasure. "Your dreams, your fears, your joy, your sorrow. All of it is mine." She pulled her head back far enough to meet Andy's eyes, wide and glazed with arousal, daring her to be bolder.

"I love you with every shred of me there is left to love. I have never, will never, possess anything as near to the divine. I will protect all that you are, all that you will be, until my dying breath." Helena held the words in her heart like a vow, and she felt the tremblings of completion deep within Andy's body

"Fall, my love," she breathed into Andy's ear. "Fall and I will catch you. Always."

Andy arched underneath her, eyes rolling back to the whites as the moment took her, air escaping her lungs in a broken, guttural sound of animal satisfaction. With deed and word, it was Helena that had brought her to such pleasure. Helena who held her as the shuddering aftershocks left her breathless and weak. Helena who was trusted and loved, without condition and beyond measure.

"You're really, really good at that," Andy laughed breathlessly, letting out a disappointed groan as Helena withdrew her hand, watching with a heady combination of exhaustion and desire when Helena brought her fingers to her own mouth. It was a habit she enjoyed indulging in almost for that look alone, made all the stronger by the heavy scent, by the taste that spread across her tongue and the memory of all the times it had before.

"Will you try to rest with me?" Helena asked, shifting to lie on her side with her arm resting heavily across Andy's middle. "No matter what the morrow brings, it will be easier to overcome with sleep." Andy tilted her head to face Helena, nudging their noses together with a sleepy smile.

"You drive a hard bargain, but I'll give it a shot." She dragged her fingertips along the back of Helena's forearm, the motion familiar and soothing.

"I adore you," Andy murmured, eyes already drifting shut.

"As I do you," Helena returned in a whisper. "Beyond reason. Without end." The soft lines of Andy's face lingered behind her eyes, and the world narrowed to the sound of her slow, even breathing, the smell of her skin. Sleep began to pull her down, insistent as the tide. 

She went without struggle.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'm Beastie; my usual fare is Bioware games, but I have been utterly enthralled with Helena's plotline in L&L for a few months and needed to get this out of my system. This was one of my first attempts and a long-form scene without any breaks, so I hope it turned out as well as it feels like it did to me!


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